


Skeletons in the Closet

by morose_moron



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Awkwardness, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Humor, IT GONE NIGGA IT ALL GONE, Misgendering, On Hiatus, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Some angst on the side, You're a skelly, aka no bone zone for you, i lost everything when the motherboard fried, in mourning, just you trying to get by, pretty much no plot, reader is female, sfw, takes place before Frisk, you weenie, you're BOTH skeletons what did you honestly expect, you're a sensitive bag of bones, you're a weeb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-13 19:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5715016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morose_moron/pseuds/morose_moron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You died before you could go home and they got your soul. But humans are stubborn, and <strong>you...</strong></p><p>Ohohoho... You were stubborn <em>beyond death.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wake me up (wake me up inside)

**Author's Note:**

> _~when you try your best but you don't succeed~_

_Dark, darker, yet darker._

You woke up in pure darkness, you could feel walls against you, and assumed you were in a box of sorts; you pressed your hand against the top in an attempt to lift the lid, when panic hit you. You didn’t feel your hands touch the lid; it was hard on hard and there was a scratchy sound when you touched it.

You pushed the lid abruptly and shoved it off you as fast as you could, but was only more terrified; your hands were only bones, looking down to your bare shins, you see more bones, you bring your hands to your face, it’s hard on hard again; you see that you’re wearing a beige turtleneck sweater, a brown faux leather coat with high neck, green combat pants that ran just past your knees, and some dark green combat boots. You get up, but feel something disgustingly slimy on your forearm and on your ribs, the one on your ribs falls on your pelvis. Pushing up your sleeve, you see a piece of literal decomposed flesh hanging to it, forcing back the sensation of wanting to throw up, you brush off the piece, and it falls disgustingly easily onto the coffin’s base; pulling up your shirt, you find an even bigger piece hanging on your pelvic bone, you pick it up, a few stray bits falling through your hands, and throw it as far away as you can.

Looking at the chunk of decomposed flesh thrown about on the corner makes it very clear in your head: you’re dead, as dead as can be, in fact, you’re a walking skeleton as of right now. You’re scared, you want to cry and scream and wake up only to find this is just a nightmare, but you know better; judging from your state, you’ve been dead for at least a year, which means that you disappeared around fifteen months ago, the search could very well have been called off by now, and even if they found you, what could they do, you’re the living dead in its most genuine saying.

You were about to get your clothes off to rid yourself of any more… Tissue… When you felt something calling out to you, it was scared and tugging anxiously, almost begging you to find it, you felt like you shouldn’t deny its call or you’d be in big trouble. Getting out of the coffin, ignoring whatever disgusting mushy sensations your feet feel from flesh still in your boots, you noticed the other coffins laid out, five of them, each had a colorful heart and a name below it; a red one, an orange one, a yellow one, a cyan one and a blue one; yours was green. Ignoring the pure dread of having a bunch of corpses beside you as well as being a corpse yourself, you walked towards the only exit of the room, climbing the flight of stairs you went past a room with a garden and found yourself going through a beautiful hallway with long windows and pillars, the colors seemed to be gold, but the nighttime seeping through the windows made it look more blue than anything, getting out of the hallway, however, you were engulfed in grays, you walked past what looked like an elevator and headed forward, stealing a glance down at the gray city a couple times. The passage suddenly became a tunnel and you felt compelled to walk quietly so you did, reaching yet more stair, you climbed them up as quietly as you could, and reaching the top, you found yourself in an oddly nice house; there was a chain blocking your way which you easily crouched below and got through, turning to your right, you followed whatever was reaching out to you, it was disturbingly strong now; you walked past the first door and tried to open the second one, where the calling was stronger, when you found it was locked, it subsided and continued down the corridor and into the very next door, that one was unlocked, but once you peeked inside you froze.

There was a giant furry monster lightly snoring on the bed, sleeping; but the calling got stronger, urging you to follow it, entering the room in max-mlg-sneaky-mode, you followed it to the drawers, feeling a bit bashful you opened one of them as quietly as possible and dug around, quietly thanking God that there were only socks and capes(?) in it; after a bit of searching, you found an odd copper key and the calling went back to where it was leading you to before; settling the socks back in their place as neatly as you could, you closed the drawer and exited the room, closing the door behind you. You used the key on the locked door, and it made a small _‘click!’_ when you opened it, what you saw inside set your hazy memories in their place.

You were in the Underground, as a human, your soul was needed to break a barrier keeping monster down here, but you had college to go to with a major you actually enjoyed (most of the time), three siblings, not one, not two, **three**. Your older sister was even married already, your younger brother was in high school and your even younger brother was in elementary school; your father worked hard along with your older sister to support everyone, but he was getting old, your mother died of anemia before your youngest sibling could remember her. You had lots of friends, and by lots, it meant that your “group” was composed of _fifteen_ people; you couldn’t even begin to understand how that many people with so many differences could get along so well, but you did. Your apartment was nice and cozy but you had a bad habit of black-out drinking a bit too often, that’s how you ended up here on the first place.

You had gone black-out drinking, and while you don’t remember exactly what happened, you’re pretty sure you must’ve lost a bet or just dared yourself to climb the mountain in your drunken stupor, and you fell; you met a bunch of monsters, an asshole flower (maybe that isn’t the best wording) and a goat lady named Toriel, she was reluctant to let you go, saying that she’d seen people go before, and they all died, but you were too stubborn to give up on your life above, she eventually let you go, but it wasn’t without bitterness; you went on, you killed a couple of monsters in self-defense, but the guilt and weight of your actions was too much, and you couldn’t bring yourself to do that again. Eventually, you got all the way up to Asgore’s home, where you are right now, but you didn’t stand a chance, he killed you easily, then you woke up inside a coffin.

Five souls were inside glass containers, and yours was the one desperately calling out to you; you walked towards it with a bit more haste and kneeled down to open the container, twisting the lid until it came off with a loud _‘pop!’_ , you heard stirring in Asgore’s room, but it was quiet soon after, your soul was quick to get out of the container and slide through the hem of your shirt to settle itself inside your ribcage. You closed the container again, and got up slowly, making your way through the house as quietly as possible, you got out through the front door, closed it behind you… And ran. You ran past the city, you ran until you got to an elevator, you got in and selected to go down to MTT Hotel’s lobby, you got out through the front door, thankfully this place left the main doors open and had a guard (who gave you odd looks) instead, making a turn towards yet another elevator, you got in and selected the furthest place from there you could find, you had started running again immediately when you ran into a guard clad in black armor, your bones rattling very loudly against the metal; he turned around to face you.

“Why’s the hurry? You all right, lad? Haven’t seen you before…” He sounded genuinely concerned, but you were too scared of losing your soul again to actually look normal and not like you were on the run.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine, uh- I was just, just on my way- To, uh, to Alphys’s! We’re old friends, mind you, and I, uh- have to catch up with her on some anime! So, uh- BYE.” You ran past him and towards the lab. Alphys was a friend, if anything else, she helped you as well as she was nice to you, you both were into TV shows and cosplay, though you were more of a cartoon person; in a last second thought, you realized that she might be able to help you with your… Situation. So you knocked on her door a little too anxiously while the guard watched you suspiciously, and occasionally looked around to see where the smell of death was coming from; the door opened after what seemed like forever, and Alphys was standing behind it.

“Do I kno--” She started with squinted eyes but was quickly pushed inside by your nervous self.

“Alphys! I’m so sorry! There was some trouble in New Home and I got super-duper late, didn’t I?! Hahahaha! I hope you didn’t start Mew Mew Kissy Cutie without me~” You said in the most natural tone you could muster; she was very uncomfortable as the door closed behind you and you held her tight by the shoulders.

“I need your help.” You said in the most no-bullshit you’ve ever heard yourself use.

“Wh-wh-who are you?! I-I-I-I d-don’t know y-you! Wh-what’s this smell?! I-I’m gonna-!” She was nearly having a panic attack, you could feel it; you had to bring her back to earth.

“Alphys, it’s _____.” She suddenly stopped.

“I-i-if this is a joke, i-it’s not funny. You sh-shoudn’t talk about the d-d-de-dead like that.” She was sweating, but seemed to almost be buying it.

“Alphys, I swear to God I am not bullshitting you right now. I’m scared out of my wits, I’m a moving corpse and I have no idea why. I need. Your help.”

That seemed to calm her down, but she looked more confused than you were as she looked you up and down and mentally confirmed that you were wearing the same clothes you wore when you fell down, she then grew more conscious of your foul smell and pinched her nose, snout?

“F-fine, whatever, you’re _____ but you h-have to shower! UGH.” She waved you off towards the elevator, you knew she lived on the second level underground, while her secret cosplay closet was in the third level and the other types of labs went from that and on.

“I’m really sorry for the trauma! I’ll give you a better explanation once I get out! I promise I’ll get this death smell off everything!” You said over your shoulder as you headed to the elevator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I personally hate when people describe outfits, but in this particular work of fiction it is an important element, you'll see.  
> In case you're wonderin' what the outfit's supposed to be. Minus the blood.  
> http://psychotic--muffin.deviantart.com/art/kid-help-i-regret-my-decisions-577955048
> 
> [BONUS]  
> You just threw the remaining chunks of flesh that clung to your body and clothes down the toilet, you got into the shower and turned on the water, you’re trying your best to get the smell of death off you when you realize:  
> “Did that guy just call me a **lad**?”


	2. Shut the fuck up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much dialogue. So very much dialogue.  
> So much, so much, so much, so much, so much, so much, so much, so much, so much, so much, so much, SHUT THE FUCK UP MUFFIN, so much-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I took so long on such a short chapter, I have a lot of trouble with transitions (I hate time skips :D ).  
> This thing's supposed to be really chill, but as the tags say, with "some angst on the side", to give the character more personality, you know? But keeping it chill with some angst in the background is proving itself to be harder than I initially thought, but let me tell you something, _I'm never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna turn around and desert you!_ (so don't worry about it) //shot

You were scurrying about around Alphys’s habitat level, you weren’t being able to pinpoint each exact spot where the stink was stronger, and seeing as you’d have to clean anyway, you settled for cleaning her entire house as a compensation for waking her up in the middle of the night and quite possibly traumatizing her. She’d lent you some clothes after you showered, you asked her where she kept the cleaning products and she led you to a cabinet inside the laundry room, grabbing the all-purpose cleaner, a rag, and a deodorizer for the first and lighter part of your cleaning spree, you begun telling her of your rather short awakening tale; she listened intently as she walked into the kitchen and filled a mug with coffee she’d made while you were in the shower. You went on about the tale making sure to describe your sensations, thinking those might be of use for her to concoct a theory on why you’re awake but obviously not quite alive; you had already cleaned the laundry room, the kitchen and the living room when you finished talking; the kitchen and the living room were connected to each other by an island, while the dining room was just a big table and a display cabinet on a deck raised a few inches from the ground in the same space as the living room.

When she didn’t make any comments after you were done, you simply continued cleaning in silence, occasionally glancing over at her seated in a stool by the kitchen island, her brow was furrowed and had a hand on her chin in contemplation; you found it amusing to watch her, you indulged yourself in seeing her gradually become less nervous as she got deep in thought trying to figure things out, her mind too busy with solving a problem to be uncomfortable, it was kind of cute.

“So… You’re t-telling me you simply… Woke up?” She was still trying to make sense of the tale you’d given her, but her mind was already busying itself with makeshift theories and wonders.

“Yes! It was like waking up in the morning, except I was inside a coffin and it smelled way more foul than my strongest hangovers.” You spoke louder than normal but not shouting, just enough for her to hear you from the kitchen island.

“B-but your soul was still contained…” Alphys fell silent again, thinking that she’d be thinking for a while, you turned to continue cleaning, but she continued before you could start again. “I think your s-soul willed you back to life, you said whatever was g-guiding you was frantic, so it could’ve d-done it out of fear… W-what was the last thing you remember b-before waking up?”

“I remember… Asgore’s trident being shoved in my gut, a lot of pain and a lot of fear, too.”

“Can you be a-a little more… Specific?” Alphys seemed nervous on asking you about your own death, obviously worried about making you uncomfortable.

“I… I was just so… Terrified. I had lots of things back up, and when I felt Asgore’s trident go through me, I was so shocked it didn’t even hurt at first; I didn’t really think I had something I was quite clinging to back there, my life wasn’t particularly special, but when I felt I was dying, I… I realized how much I actually treasured the simple life I had, and how much I was afraid of losing it, how much I didn’t _want to_ lose it.” You were sure that if you could cry, you’d be needing to fight back tears.

“_____, I… I’m really sorry about that…” Alphys was clutching her cup of coffee tightly, she knew that the humans who fell down actually had lives they cared about, but hearing about it directly from one of the _dead_ ones really tugged at her heartstrings, and probably would tug at anyone’s.

“Thanks, Alphys. I appreciate it.” You said in a genuine tone of thankfulness, Alphys seemed to feel a little better, even if just a tiny bit.

“I-I’m pretty confident your soul brought you back through fear, then; it m-must’ve converted all that fear into the D-Determination necessary to bring you back to consciousness.” Alphys continued with the situation at hand.

“That sounds… Far-fetched; are you sure about that? Humans don’t normally come back from the grave just because they don’t want to die.” You said as you leaned on the table you were supposed to be cleaning; you didn’t want to question the royal scientist, but you’re pretty sure there are a lot of other people out there who were more scared when they died than you.

“W-well, i-it’s only a t-theory I p-put up based o-on you st-tory.” She went back to being a stuttering mess once questioned, suddenly unsure of herself.

“Woah there, sure, I’m used to human normalcy but you’re the one with a PhD here, no need to question yourself over what the measly college student I am say.” You put your hands up in the universal ‘chill out’ sign as you spoke.

“A-ah, s-sorry about that…” She fiddled with her hands, but forced herself to stop before continuing. “You said… Your soul wasn’t absorbed b-back into your body, right? Is it okay?” She locked eyes with you, legitimately concerned.

“Yeah,” you said, leaning back on the table and crossing your arms. “It’s currently floating inside my ribcage, just chillin’ there; it makes me feel exposed. Actually, scratch that, I feel exposed either way, I’M A SKELETON.” You joked; Alphys seemed conflicted as to if it made her feel better or worse.

The room was uncomfortably silent for a few moments before you cleared your throat and continued.

“So… Any idea as to why my soul waited an entire year until waking me up?” You turned around and got back to wiping the table, trying to clean the awkwardness away.

“About that… My b-best guess is that it just couldn’t. The immediate effect p-post mortem is stiffening of the muscles, and if you’re really running on Determination as of right now… Needless to say, just waking you up must’ve taken a lot of it, so moving such a heavy m-mass of organs, muscles and liquids was probably too much for D-Determination alone.” Alphys explained, then took a long sip of her coffee.

“So now even my soul said I need to lose weight?” You chuckled, joking about humanity’s beauty standards, mentally raising an eyebrow since you had none; Alphys chuckled a bit, too.

You finished cleaning the table and turned to her, you took a deep breath before continuing.

“So, to summarize things… I was literally scared back to life by myself, but stayed dead for an entire year as I rotted away my weight so my soul could move me again, is that what we have right now?”

“Umm… Yeah, p-pretty much.” Alphys shrugged, an embarrassed smile adorned her face; it was a pretty crazy story, after all.

You two stared at each other’s eyes for a long silent while, then you started laughing, cackling, even; Alphys soon joined in.

“Wow! Oh my God! That’s got to be the weirdest thing I’ve **ever** been through! And I’ve gone black-out drinking a **lot**!” You said between snorts.

“You really are something else, _____!” Alphys replied; she actually felt a bit disconcerted, but someone who can laugh at such a situation like yours… They just have an integrity you can’t help but find yourself laughing along with.

After the laughter died down, Alphys spoke up.

“You can stay with me if you don’t have any place to go, i-if you want to, that is!” She was blushing from embarrassment, but still smiling.

“You mean that?” Your voice had such a relief in it that didn’t go unnoticed by your friend.

“Y-yeah! Stay as long as you like, it’s nice to have s-someone else to talk to, you know, irl.”

“You did not just say irl;” You chuckled and walked over to her and gave her a tight hug. “Thanks, Alphys. I can’t even… I can’t begin to express how grateful I am.” You said as you let go.

“A-anything for an old f-friend.” She adjusted her glassed before continuing. “Not to mention, I-I’m really curious now, I’ve never seen a human j-just walk out of the grave like that; it’s intriguing!” Her eyes seemed to spark with curiosity, you chuckled.

“All right you weeb, you should probably go back to sleep now, I’ll stick around and finish cleaning up.” You nudge her towards the bedrooms.

“A-aren’t you tired?” She said as she turned to you.

“Nah, I just slept for an entire year, I got plenty of energy to spare. Oh, sorry; your coffee.” You said in a relaxed tone before handing her the mug.

Alphys chugged down the rest of the coffee, cleaning her lips with her forearm before continuing.

“You r-remember where your room is, right?” She said as she strutted towards the sink and placed the mug in it. Right, you had spent a few days hiding in here when you were alive, mentally preparing yourself for getting back home as well as indulging yourself in weeabo culture and cosplaying.

“Yup, used its bathroom to shower as well, didn’t want to get your anime stuff stinky.”

“Well, g-good night, then.” Alphys said as she walked towards the hallway were the bedrooms were and disappeared from your sight when she entered hers.

Making sure not to be loud, you let out a long sigh, then got back to cleaning; you finished cleaning the dining area, the hallway, your bedroom and your bathroom, you’d clean Alphys’s things only with her around, not wanting to overstep your bounds. Your bedroom, which was a very big guest bedroom, had white walls and a light blue carpet, the same colors as the rest of the lab, but different materials, it was a bit boring, but it was calming; it was big enough for a single bed, a night stand, a dresser, a desk, a wardrobe, a small bookcase (most of it were dusty hardcovers, most likely there only for the sake of esthetics), an armchair and a bathroom. The bathroom was to the direct left of the door, the bed and nightstand were in the left corner furthest from the door, the dresser directly in front of the door, on the right corner furthest from the door was the desk, on the right wall was the wardrobe and a little more down to the corner was the bookcase, in the direct right corner from the door was the armchair; decorating the floor was a rug with the Delta Rune, as you’d come to know, in it.

All in all, it was huge, and had a lot of breathing space, but somehow you still felt like you were suffocating; while you were cleaning the bathroom, you couldn’t help but keep glancing at the mirror, you tried your best to make any facial expressions at all, you tried scowling, smiling, wiggling your eyebrows, squinting your eyes, but nothing moved, you honestly felt like you were a moving science class dummy; your reflection thrown in your face, rubbing it in that you were dead and that you wouldn’t be able to live like you used to and that you didn’t belong anywhere anymore, you were dead, so you didn’t belong with humanity, but you also had a human soul, which meant you didn’t belong with monsters, either.

Suddenly panic hit you, Asgore would certainly notice that a soul was missing, he would also certainly notice that a corpse was missing as well, he might have been a softie, offering you tea before your battle, but he wasn’t dumb, he’d connect the dots eventually, and then he’d come for you, or send Undyne after you, you remembered that one, obviously not a bad person, but scary and all-too-eager to kill you. All the information that suddenly came crashing down on you today was overbearing and you found yourself curled up in bed, crying if only you could, but with no tears flowing from your eyes, no hiccups or sobs to fill lungs that weren’t there, just you, in silence, suffering.

You didn’t even remember falling asleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My headcanon is that Alphys is a precious sinnamon roll and a great friend that everybody should love & protect. It is also my headcanon that Alphys stops stuttering completely once she feels comfortable around someone.
> 
> BY THE WAY, I literally had to design a blueprint for the bedroom and sketched out what I thought Alphys's habitat level would be like because I have no sense of space and I often forget how physics work when mentally visualizing for a long time. http://sta.sh/016c070di737
> 
> The creative process of this chapter: http://psychotic-muffin.tumblr.com/post/137336859653/the-creative-process-behind-skeletons-in-the


	3. these are the things, these are the things, these are the things we lost when the motherboard fried, fried, fried

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tl;dr: shit hit the fan, i was lied to, i feel like shit and updates are going to take even more time to come now. sorry.

so... this thing hasn't updated in like... over a month? so i guess y'all deserve an explanation.

my computer's motherboard fried. i didn't make a backup, posting all my personal stuff on the internet really isn't very appealing to me and I never owned an external hard drive big enough to fit my things, so! i sent the motherboard to repairs _from the very company that made it_ and it arrived yesterday, it was already late when i opened the package so i only turned it on earlier today.

now, if you've read the comments on the previous chapter, you know _i was told_ that there was no memory damage, unfortunately, when i turned it back on today, there was nothing. not a single drawing, song, document, game, ANY TYPE OF FILE AT ALL was spared. _i had to reinstall google chrome for fuck's sake_. WHO THE FUCK USES BING ANYWAY?

so... there's that... god, i feel like shit. if this is how sans feels every time the timeline resets, i have newfound respect for the guy.  
i know i promised to post a flurry o' chapters once i got it back, but as of right now, i don't feel like doing anything, really; i just don't have the will to write it all again right now... so it's going to take... probably a lot more time to update.

sorry.


	4. okay i'm really sorry about all these author notes but i don't have a beta reader or helper so bare with me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i'm starting to get hyped again but i need your opinion

I'm not gonna bullshit ya, i'm still not in the mood to _write_ just yet, but I have started planning the storyline again. Of course I already had plans and stuff, but this time around I'm making something sort of a timeline, I'm writing down what happens in each day you spend in the underground (as this thing goes on there will probably be time skips, but not yet) in a very brief form.

And when I say each day, I mean _each day_ ; as in, day one, day two, day three.

Morning routine, afternoon routine and evening routine included. (Don't look at me like that, this is a slice of life, you signed up for this shit)

And this being a slice of life and all, there are days you do less things, so in writing they become short, and then there are days you do _so much shit omg_ so they're like _suuuper_ long when written down; and I've reached a bit of a dillemma when it comes to dividing everything up:

**Should I upload each day as an individual chapter and have some short chapters and some really long ones? Or should I try to even things out by adding an extra day to a smaller day's chapter, and dividing the giant ones in two?**

I'm so sorry for uploading this as a chapter but I don't have a blog for this thing for y'all to stay up-to-date with my dumb decisions and have a say in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> actually, that's also a good question: should i make a blog for this? so you guys can stay up-to-date in the backstage stuff?


End file.
